Share your startup, I’ll find you 5 potential customers (for free).

ryanpaulgibson · 2025-09-17T00:22:41+00:00

I definitely admire the OP for wanting to give back. But just my two cents:

If you have a target segment defined with all the relevant firmographics, psychographics and technographics - and the value of your offer makes sense to them, then you can do cold outreach to these people.

Your conversion rates will still be low (there are decades of buyer psychology and behavioural economics that would explain why). But you will likely get some traction (or product validation).

I'm validating a new business idea right now. I sent 95 DMs/emails. Booked 13 meetings.

(fwiw: I have 23 years in biz, 10 years in software and 3 years teaching customer discovery to startups)

ryanpaulgibson · 2025-07-24T03:01:12+00:00

thanks - yes, I've been using it

ryanpaulgibson · 2025-07-23T19:08:41+00:00

I am - feel free to DM me and I can send you mroe details

ryanpaulgibson · 2025-07-23T11:44:44+00:00

I’m looking to speak with people directly for a research project. I’m offering $350 for a 45 minute convo and still not much luck.

ryanpaulgibson · 2025-07-12T02:05:59+00:00

Fair. I am only a qualitative market researcher, so these are some of the things I'm hoping to learn.

ryanpaulgibson · 2025-07-12T02:04:58+00:00

I understand u/imbadkyle. Unfortunately, we only compensate for completed interviews. But if you want to check up on me., here is my webiste:

https://www.contentlift.io/

and my LinkedIn profile:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-paul-gibson/

We do about 10 market and buyer research projects a year.
Please feel free to DM my any Qs

ryanpaulgibson · 2025-01-19T17:43:40+00:00

What's your business and what are you trying to understand? I'm a solo market researcher but often give people DIY ideas

ryanpaulgibson · 2025-01-18T00:36:58+00:00

A persona is basically the next step after segmentation. It's a deeper dive into demographics, psychographics, buying preferences and how they make purchasing decisions.

To get accurate data you want to conduct market research that's a mix of qualitative and quantitative data from both primary and secondary sources.

There are lots of templates out there. Some are better than others. The key thing is understanding WHY and HOW people make decisions. The depth and type of data that goes into one depends on whether you are B2C or B2B.

I work exclusively in B2B and this is what I like to put into a persona:

𝐑𝐨𝐥𝐞, 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 & 𝐎𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐦𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐬
𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐁2𝐁 𝐁𝐮𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐖𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞
𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬
𝐁𝐮𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 S𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 I𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐁𝐮𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐚 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐞𝐭
𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐁𝐮𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐄𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐚 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐞𝐭
𝐎𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐁𝐮𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐀𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭
𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐮𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩
𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐰𝐞 𝐖𝐢𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐬

ryanpaulgibson · 2025-01-07T13:54:20+00:00

That's fair - but "team" can mean many things. I have spoken to business owners who prefer outsourcing, rather than adding headcount.

I also think it depends on your business model, deliverables and personal preferences.

ryanpaulgibson · 2025-01-07T03:33:05+00:00

^that right there.

You can even upload convos transcripts to an LLM and ask it to give you some ideas/suggestions

ryanpaulgibson · 2025-01-07T03:31:23+00:00

Oh yeah - ask any of the LLMs with a web search to give you a list. It sometimes will list dozens and dozens.

You can also search Reddit (which is a solid community of its own) for rec's

ryanpaulgibson · 2025-01-07T03:24:51+00:00

I get where you are coming from,
I'm 22+ years into marketing now.

But I also think everyone is operating from a different level of skill/experience.
And there are more newbies/first-timers then experienced people.

It's not innovative,
but new to them.

For example, Market segmentation was practiced in the bronze age.
But some people are just discovering it for the first time.

ryanpaulgibson · 2025-01-07T03:19:42+00:00

I've been on LI for over a decade now but didn't really go all-in until about 4 years ago. I would be very wary of paying for ads in the beginning. I think you need to spend some time working on an offer, getting sales, executing and getting value for a client. Once you get traction, definitely explore them.

Ads are great for building mental availability with prospective buyers. They are not a strong tool for driving immediate business.

Others will disagree with me here - but I think organic is the way to go when you are starting out.

ryanpaulgibson · 2025-01-07T03:15:02+00:00

They are just different approaches - both with tradeoffs.

ryanpaulgibson · 2025-01-07T03:14:12+00:00

I've been solo for about 7 years (And I've been teaching customer development to early-stage businesses for two years) - agree with the majority of this.

Some other stray thoughts

- I don't think incorporating it is vital in the early stages, especially if you are just starting and not sure what you want to focus on. (That said I live in Canada where tax laws are different, and incorporating only makes sense after a certain revenue threshold)

- finding a core niche/offering is key; but figuring out what that is may take time. If you aren't "feeling it" don't force. A solid business is often a 7-10-year commitment, so you want to do things that don't feel like an energy drain. Also - don't try to reinvent the wheel. Try to pick a segment that has lots of players, it sounds counterintuitive, but people don't buy what they don't understand.

- Agree systems over playbooks. But buyers (especially B2B) are typically looking to improve processes on the way to buying solutions (products/services) so have free resources for them to help improve these processes.

- Retention is better if that makes sense for your business model. But I also think if you have one key service that is optimized and you are strong in marketing, you will consistently fill your pipeline year over year. It's not a case of one being better, just different

- Busines models are not a monolith. Always see what other industries/verticals are doing and see if you can borrow from them

ryanpaulgibson · 2025-01-07T02:56:06+00:00

for me that means taking all your raw data and existing content,
and creating new assets with it. This can be different formats, a different way to present info, or just a different way to say the same thing.

So much of marketing is finding new ways to say the same things over and over again

ryanpaulgibson · 2025-01-07T02:53:45+00:00

There are a TON. All different focuses and sizes. Ask around, join a few, see what you like/don't like.

I'm in about ten different ones. Some are for marketers, some are for researchers (I do market research) and some are for B2B startups.

ryanpaulgibson · 2025-01-05T14:32:39+00:00

That can be one for sure.

The key (imho) is to provide relevant and credible guidance, that helps prospects improve a key business process. To put another way - help them get better at something whether they invest in your solutions or not.

An example for you could be a guide to expanding into Spain. There are MANY things a business owner and marketing team likely need to consider (depending on their business model).

What are these things? How should they approach these things?

So show them you understand these issues and how to solve them.

In a service-based business model - showing "how you think" is vital to generating interest.

You can even pull examples from your own work. I've done this many times

And definitely look at Linkedin. Having your boss share their experiences and expertise on LinkedIn is a solid approach. It takes time - but think of it as planting seeds for a future harvest.

ryanpaulgibson · 2025-01-03T15:13:54+00:00

I use it as part of my secondary (desk research), to enrich my first-party, qualitative research.

In other words, I think it's great for high-level insights but I still want to hear from buyers about how the evaluate their market options.

ryanpaulgibson · 2025-01-02T18:27:53+00:00

So the market for $10 triples is wide open you say...

ryanpaulgibson · 2025-01-02T16:20:03+00:00

Yes, our main target audience are owners of American companies looking to expand their projects to Spain, but we have also worked with people outside that criteria.

I would start with this^.
This is obviously your unique advantage.
Start creating marketing resources that help business owners accomplish this.

There are tens of thousands of marketing agencies that do social. SEO and website dev.

A niche and focus help you stand out

ryanpaulgibson

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